May 3, 2009
Artist collective Uitschot came up with this wooden game console called Gameboom (Game tree) in 2005.
Cut and installed for the first Day of the Park in Leiden. Location: Cronesteynpark across the water playground. For: city children who are allergic to nature, get dragged along by their parents but would rather game. Detail: functioning slot.
(Link: BoingBoing.)
May 2, 2009
While both parties I worked at the last few days on Queen’s Day and on May 1 (Labour Day in Europe, but not in the Netherlands, though people took the day off) had people talking about a major incident involving a car ramming the Queens’ visit and killing five people, other weird things have been happening.
Around noon yesterday, masked people robbed the Scheringa Museum in Spanbroek, North Holland around noon. The robbers made off with two paintings, one by Salvador Dali and one by Tamara de Lempicka. Luckily, no one was injured, but they were threatened at gunpoint, and the police have no leads. They do, however, claim that the theft was specific, as the loot was Dali’s ‘Adolescence’, a gouache from 1941 and ‘La Musicienne’ by Tamara de Lempicka, an oil painting from 1929 (shown here). And yes, they are very valuable.
(Link: depers.nl, Photo: postdam.blogspot.com)
April 22, 2009
When I was a wee lad, one of my favourite fairytale books was Heksen en zo (Witches and such) by Annie M.G. Schmidt, and to my great joy and surprise I ran into the whole collection at the DBNL website. DBNL is a sort of Project Gutenberg, but they apparently have a good rapport with authors’ estates, because they manage to present in-copyright works by significant Dutch authors for free to a web audience.
This version of Heksen en zo is illustrated by Charlotte Dematons. The one we had at home was illustrated by the inimitable Carl Hollander, who also graced the works of Paul Biegel and Astrid Lindgren with his drawings.
There once was a king who was so rich that he had oysters for tea and fed real pearls to his pigs every day. When he drove by in his black carriage with golden wheels, the people bowed deep into the dust.
Sometimes a child said: “But he hasn’t got a nice face, mother.” This would startle the mother and she would whisper: “Shush, you are not allowed to say that.”
“Why not?” the child asked. “Can the king hear us?”
“No,” the mother said. “But the king has a marshal who keeps an ear to the ground.”
And this was so. The king had a marshal who could unscrew his left ear. When nobody was watching he would lay the ear between some shrubs near the window of a house. Then he would go away and leave his ear behind.
[…]
(From: De maarschalk die zijn oor te luisteren legde, Heksen en Zo, Annie M.G. Schmidt.)
Tags: Annie M.G. Schmidt, Carl Hollander, fairy tales, tales
April 17, 2009
The US bank JPMorgan Chase claims to be the rightful owner of De bocht van de Herengracht (around 1672) by Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde, writes Volkskrant (Dutch). The Rijksmuseum, which currently has the painting, bought the work in October of last year from one Louis Reijtenbagh, who has since gotten into financial troubles. The bank claims Reijtenbagh never should have sold the painting in the first place, as he had been using it as collateral for a loan.
On April 1, JPMorgan Chase claimed the entire art collection of Reijtenbagh which contains Rembrandts, Monets, Picassos and so on. The location of many of these paintings is apparently unknown, but Berckheyde‘s painting of what later was to be known as the Golden Bend, where Amsterdam’s wealthiest citizens used to live, is currently at display at the National Gallery museum in Washington.
Note by the way that Volkskrant and De Telegraaf show two different pictures, and the Rijksmuseum website has a third painting with the same name. For the illustration of this entry I went with the version I liked best, but if you know which picture is the contested one, let us know.
Tags: Amsterdam, banks, Berckheyde, crisis, Golden Age, Rijksmuseum, USA
April 14, 2009
Galerie Rob Koudijs in Amsterdam is currently holding an exhibition of works by Dutch jewellery designer Ted Noten called ‘Haunted by 36 Women’, which will run until 23 May. It features “assemblages and rapid-prototyped pieces based on architectypical perceptions of the woman.”
Follow the link below for more pictures.
(Link and photo: dezeen.com)
Tags: exhibition, shoes, Ted Noten
April 13, 2009
The Instituut Collectie Nederland, the agency that manages the national government’s art collection, is selling art (Dutch) from its depots and storage rooms of a number of museums for cheap on eBay. Much of the art was acquired as part of the BKR (Beeldende Kunstenaars Regeling, Visual Arts Arrangement) during which many government-appointed artists got an income in exchange for regularly producing art for municipalities. ICN is selling about 50 pieces a week this way, and according to the Volkskrant video below (Dutch), the works are selling fairly cheaply, with prices starting at no more than 17,50 euro.
Trouw mentioned in January (Dutch) that ICN is selling all this art because the depots are brimming over. The paper quotes Marina Raymakers of ICN:
There are lots of pieces that just never leave their storage. Many collections have simply grown too big, [and] many works simply no longer fit in a museum collection.”
We organised a large auction at an auction house last year, but the Internet has a lower threshold. It draws a different audience, which is a good thing. Everybody gets a chance this way.
Before art is sold at www.haaleenstukjemuseuminhuis.nl, museums get first dibs at www.herplaatsingsdatabase.nl. The smart art collector uses the latter site to see what will eventually end up at the former, says Trouw.
A lot of the art produced as part of the BKR has actually been used by the government, although the arrangement was also known for producing some hideous art that all but the artists involved were only too eager to hide in storage. I remember reading stories about artists actually suing the government over the latter type of use, using moral rights provisions in the Dutch copyright law to claim that hiding an ugly art work was a form of infringement. If anybody can tell me if I remember correctly, please do. A quick google did not produce any results.
Illustration: this unnamed painting by Bertus de Meij is currently up for auction at eBay, the price being 81,50 euro after 6 bids. His San Grimignano sold for 425 euro in January, according to Trouw.
Via Trendbeheer (Dutch).
Tags: artists, auctions, BKR, government, visual arts
March 22, 2009
This is a gable decoration on the building of the Bloemenlust flower auction house on the Oosteinderweg in Aalsmeer just South of Amsterdam. I ran into it today while biking through the neighbourhood. It’s carved entirely out of brick. The text—abreviated here and there—reads Bloemenlust Coöperatieve Veilingsvereeniging (Bloemenlust co-operative auction association).
After a merger in 1968 with the Centrale Veiling and a subsequent move to a new location, the 1922 building became a restaurant. The new auction would go on the become the largest in the world for flowers, housed in the second largest building in terms of floor space.
March 20, 2009
The now infamous Vijzelgracht, a street in downtown Amsterdam where entire houses are sinking into the ground due to a series of major screw-ups in digging the new North-South metro line, was a sorry sight. Families were evacuated and their houses boarded up and declared ‘unfit to live in’.
Across the street, local artist Peter Doeswijk who lives and works on the Vijzelgracht came up with a cultural solution to poster up the boarded houses and hide the inevitable graffiti: by using famous artworks of Dutch Masters (Frans Hals, Vermeer and the likes). He has had other poster exhibitions on the Vijzelgracht during the actual construction and without his efforts, the street, which boasts famous manors such as the one of the Maison Descartes (French institute) would look even worse than it sounds.
When I went by to take pictures around 6 pm last Monday, about 50% of everyone walking by stopped for at least 10 minutes to admire all the artworks and take pictures. Here are mine below. The last one is of the stairs of one of the houses, just to show you how bad the situation is. It reminds me of the stairs in the Mousetrap game.
I also met Peter Doeswijk some 12 years ago when he sold his painted phones before we all had mobiles ones, as his niece was a roommate of mine back in Montréal.
Tags: Frans Hals, Peter Doeswijk, Vijzelgracht
March 19, 2009
The Keukenhof flower exhibition, what Wikipedia calls “the world’s largest flower garden,” turns 60 this year. Last Wednesday Queen Beatrix opened this sixtieth edition, according to Blik op Nieuws (Dutch), which is themed ‘USA, New Amsterdam – New York, 400’ in honour of the claiming of the region by Henry Hudson in 1609, followed 15 years later by the foundation of New Amsterdam, which is now called New York.
Part of the exhibition is a giant flowerbed depicting the Statue of Liberty, which is not in bloom yet.
Photo by Nguyen Dai, some rights reserved.
Tags: anniversaries, bulbs, flowers, New York, public relations, Queen Beatrix, tulips
March 16, 2009
Sculptor Shinkichi Tajiri died a Dutchman in his home town of Baarlo in Limburg last Saturday, reports NOS Journaal (Dutch). The artist of Japanese-American descent who escaped the WWII concentration camps in the US by joining the army, left for Europe in 1948, disgusted that even a decorated hero like him was still considered just a Jap in his own country. However, he never renounced his nationality, feeling that he could only rightfully criticize America as an American. For most of his life he lived in Baarlo, Limburg, where he befriended my parents, and where last year he finally obtained Dutch citizenship.
Tajiri is perhaps best known for his large statues of knots, but one of my earliest memories were paintings and drawings of fantastic contraptions that could either be guns or cameras, preparing me for what nowadays is called steampunk. Sketches for some of these drawings can be found on Tajiri’s website under Drawings 1963 – 1968.
In his later years, Tajiri returned to these violent images, and a few years ago, he built four metal guardians that watch over the bridge between Blerick and Venlo, my birth town. Kunst in de Regio has a well illustrated story (Dutch) about the building of these statues.
To Ogendicht he explained his art (Dutch):
My warriors are attempts to suppress those fears, to cast off demons and to deal with nightmares. Only a small part of the 442 Regimental Combat Team, of which I was a part, survived the war. Many talented young people died on the battlefield, sometimes right next to me. That affected me deeply, along with the shootings, explosions and bayonet fights. For the past 60 years I have tried to provide shape to the psychological scars that all these impressive experiences have left.
Photo of a Tajiri knot by Marja van Bochove, some rights reserved.
